Michael Swickard's new novel about New Mexico

House Minority Whip Keith Gardner, R-Roswell, has been named New Mexico Governor-elect Susana Martinez Chief of Staff. Gardner will reportedly resign his legislative position. Other members of the team are:
•Ryan Cangiolosi, who served as Martinez’s campaign manager. He will be deputy chief of staff overseeing boards and commissions.
•Brian Moore, a former state legislator from Clayton. He will be deputy chief of staff and legislative director overseeing policy and cabinet issues.
•Jessica Hernandez, who will be general counsel.
•Matthew Stackpole, who will be assistant general counsel.
•Scott Darnell, who will be communications director.
•Matt Kennicott, who will be director of policy and planning.

From politico.com - The new freshman class in the House includes seven Latino Republicans — four from Western states (read non-Florida Cubans). Throw in two Latino governors in New Mexico and Nevada, and Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and looks like the 2010 midterms produced no clear read on where Latinos stand politically. This ambivalence frustrates both parties — but especially Democrats. Their expectations that Latinos would become the new black — and reliably vote for Democrats at a better than 90 percent rate — were again thwarted. For the time being, anyway. Conservatives now need to communicate their message — for which Latinos are surprisingly ready, according to a poll commissioned by The Heritage Foundation. An even more interesting churning is likely to take place as we move from politics to policy. The political choice Latinos make in individual elections may prove less important than the philosophy of government they eventually embrace — which helps predict their success in America.
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Albuquerque – Governor-elect Susana Martinez today announced the members of a Government Efficiency Task Force. Working in concert with the department review teams, these individuals will conduct an assessment of state government departments prior to January 1, 2011 and issue recommendations directly to the Governor-elect on making it operate in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Garrey Carruthers served as the Governor of New Mexico from 1987 to 1991. He currently serves as Dean of the College of Business at New Mexico State University. Other members of the Government Efficiency Task Force include:
DEL ARCHULETA, For 35 years, Del Archuleta has served as the president and owner of Molzen and Corbin, an engineering and architecture firm. Archuleta serves on the board of directors of the Presbyterian Hospital, Bank of Albuquerque and NM Mutual. EDDIE BINDER, Eddie Binder is the former press secretary for Governor Carruthers and Congresswoman Heather Wilson. RONN JONES, Ronn Jones spent over 20 years in government, working as a state purchasing agent and deputy state purchasing agent for New Mexico. Jones also spent two years working for the city of Albuquerque as a city purchasing officer.

RAY KYSAR, Ray Kysar served 14 years in the New Mexico state Senate, and eight years on the Legislative Finance Committee and Senate Finance Committee. He is currently the chairman of the board of Kysar Insurance Agency, Inc. WILLARD LEWIS, Willard Lewis is a retired certified public accountant who worked 10 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She is a former Secretary of Finance and Administration under Governor Carruthers and assistant director of the University of New Mexico Medical Center. BEVERLEE MCCLURE, Beverlee McClure is the former president of Clovis Community College and Secretary of Higher Education. She is currently the president and chief executive officer of the Association of Commerce and Industry. DR. JACKI P. RIGGS, Dr. Jacki Riggs is a former cabinet secretary under Governor Garrey Carruthers and chief executive officer of the New Mexico Business Roundtable. REPRESENTATIVE JOE STELL, Joe Stell is a rancher and former member of the New Mexico Legislature from Carlsbad. HARVEY YATES, Harvey Yates is a graduate of Cornell Law School and is the current chief executive officer and president of Jalapeno Corporation, which is involved in the oil, gas and real estate businesses. He is chairman of Adelante Now, which works to tutor elementary aged school children in reading and math.

From Townhall.com - EL PASO, Texas -- Nobody wants bad news during the holidays. But here, along the U.S.-Mexico border, and along the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula, there is very little good news this Thanksgiving. Fresh bloodshed along both "borders" (the boundary between North Korea and South Korea is a "military demarcation line" with a 2-kilometer demilitarized zone on each side of the line) reflects the ineptness of the Obama administration's national security "team" and poses significant risks to American citizens. This week, North Korea's proud display of a previously secret cascade of uranium enrichment centrifuges and a deadly artillery barrage into South Korea swept bad news from our own southern neighbor off the front pages. Unfortunately, the drug cartels battling one another and the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon along our southern frontier may prove to be as great a peril to the U.S. as the erratic regime in Pyongyang. Worse, the O-Team's response to each threat has proved to be equally feeble. Read full column here:

From Townhall.com - by Larry Elder - President Barack Obama walked into the Oval Office in January 2009 during a severe economic downturn led by a meltdown in housing prices -- and promptly made things worse. By bailing out banks, insurance companies and auto firms -- done to a lesser extent by the previous administration -- Obama rewarded poor performers and punished their better-managed competitors. Prevented from pouncing on wounded rivals and thus increasing market share or buying the assets of the wounded at fire sale prices, Ford, for example, watched GM and Chrysler get a cash infusion from taxpayers. Despite GM's recent "successful" public offering, taxpayers lost billions of dollars. Obama and the Democratic congressional supermajorities passed a nearly trillion-dollar economic "stimulus" package and then proceeded to award fiscally irresponsible states with "stimulus" funds, helping postpone the day of reckoning when states must meet their budgets by reducing spending and cutting the size of government. Stimulus supposedly "saved or created" 3.5 million jobs, but it merely succeeded in transferring money from the pockets of producer taxpayers into the pockets of others. Read full column here: